Well, I am 75 years old now so may have trouble
remembering everything we became involved in during my
time in the service. I will try my best, of course, to
present the account as accurately as possible. Some of
my photographs have deteriorated and had to be touched
up as best I could and a few of them disappeared
altogether but there is enough left to give good account
of my experiences during my terms of service. A few
photos are not mine.

Being born July 4, 1937, I spent my formulate years
during World War II when most of my uncles were serving
in the army and the navy. My father was older, had five
children and was never drafted. Of course, an
impressionable young lad worshiped the uncles and all
things military and couldn't wait to be a soldier
himself.

So in 1955 when I was 18 years of age and was just
settingwith the other young
men in the city park of the small coal-mining
community I lived in my buddies, Bob Hudson and Gene Hamm, didn't
have to ask me twice if I'd join the army with them. I
was ready to go, so we went to the local recruiting
office up in Centerville, IA, our county seat, and while
there saw the posters etc. calling for volunteers for
the 3rd Armored Division. Sounded really exciting,
serving in the tanks. So .......

We asked the recruiter about it and he explained that
the 3rd Armored Division had been deactivated right
after WWII and that since the Korean war and the Russian
aggressiveness in Berlin, Germany that the U.S.A. had
decided to activate 2 more Army divisions and send them
to Europe to help with the Russians. They were the 11th
Airborne Division and the 3rd Armored Division.

The recruiter explained that we would enlist for 3
years, spend the first year in Ft Knox, KY training and
then the entire division would be sent to Germany in
early mid-year, 1956 where we would serve out our terms
of service and return to the U.S.A.

Sounded good to us so we signed up for the 3 year
enlistment. We enlisted as a "Buddy" unit and would all
be together. He explained he could not guarantee that we
would be side by side in a unit but did say we would all
be in the 3rd A.D. We knew practically nothing about the army
and we were lucky that our enlistment was during
peacetime and we saw no conflicts of any kind and had an
entirely peaceful enlistment for which I am grateful. We
enlisted specifically in the 3rd A.D. so to speak and
served only with that unit. Even my schooling in
Aberdeen Proving Grounds was done TDY from the 3rd A.D.
We were told to report to Ft Dodge by Des Moines IA for
the induction into the army.

We reported as instructed and were given the tests,
physical examinations and all that.

BUT, for some reason, they would not let Gene Hamm go to
the 3rd A.D. We were told because of Gene's eyesight.
They claimed he would be going to a possible theater of
war and that he had to have good eyesight. Anyway, they
removed Gene from the unit and gave Bob and I some guy
from Muscatine, IA that we had never met, Donald Crane.
He was O.K., we just didn't know him.

Then we were sworn into the army and sent to Camp
Chaffee, Arkansas. Actual date of entry into the army
was Jul 21, 1955.

Now I don't know why we had to go there instead of Ft
Knox, but I must assume the army had a reason. We all
went there, Gene Hamm included, but upon arrival he was
removed from the group and sent into some other outfit
there for basic training.

When we were lined up at the barber shop and I had
worked my way up to the doorway/alcove and was next, the
guy in front of me was setting down in the chair and the
barber leaned over his shoulder and in a friendly way
asked him, "Son, how much of your hair would you like to
keep?" and the kid blurts out, "Well, as much as I can!"
whereupon the barber whirls and pretending to look down
the hallway I was standing in hollers, "Hey, Joe, bring
in another paper bag will ya!" Some army levity to
lighten the moment.

Those barbers sometimes had it rough too, I suppose.
Since then I have wondered if they had ever had trouble
in a barbershop when they tried to cut some of the
draftees' hair. I don't imagine they were all passive
and submissive to the removal of all of their hair and
maybe mustache too.When we were getting
the clothing issue, they gave me a set of shoulder
patches to sew on the uniforms. Problem was, they were
5th Army patches and not 3rd Armored Division so I felt
obligated to tell the clerks of the error but they
insisted that I had to take them. Well, I almost caused
a riot because I insisted they had to be 3rd Armored
Div. patch. The sergeant got really teed off and was
ready to have me stood against a wall somewhere when I
thought maybe I shouldn't be such a pain and when he
promised I'd get the right patches over in Ft Knox I
accepted that and the line started moving again.

Funny thing about that warehouse where we got the stuff.
It had an odor to it that in my lifetime I could only
associate with the army. It was generally most prevalent
on the "web gear" we were issued and learned to use.
Things like our web belt which was capable of having
everything in the army but a tank, hooked to it. The
tent shelter-half and our packs all smelled of the
stuff. I think it was some kind of water-proofing
chemical. Anyway, it had it's own distinct odor which
was pretty strong when we first got the stuff. Anytime
you smelled it, you knew the army wasn't far behind.

I remember that one morning right after "work call" we
then went on "police call." They got us lined up to go
through this area around this building. They told us
what "police call" was and what we were supposed to do
(pick up cigarette butts and paper stuff) and all of
that. While they were lining us up and giving us the
instructions, me and Hudson saw this huge hornet flying
up the street towards us.

It was the biggest bee I ever saw! I thought it was a
hummingbird until it got up close. And about the time it
reached our position, it took off at a slant and went up
under the building just to our direct front and at the
same time as the sgt was saying,"do not go to the right
or left, go straight through. If there is a building in
your front, crawl under it, don't go around!

I'm not exactly sure about Hudson but I started hedging
to the right and kept at it until I was close enough to
the end I figured I could walk around it and I did. No
one said anything, I don't know if they noticed me or
not but I didn't think I had to get under there with the
bees. Some of the guys, 3 or 4 maybe, went under and
never got stung.

Did the cadre know there was a nest of hornets under the
building? Hard telling but I would not doubt it.

If I remember right, they had a big messhall there which
fed from 3 corners of a square serving line, probably
600-700 men. When I first saw it I figured no way could
they cook and serve that much food and it be good but I
was wrong. It wasn't the best but it was all right, not
bad.

Heh, we had one deal there that I just have to talk
about - the army gives every recruit what they called "a
flyin 20" - a twenty dollar bill that they could buy
toilet articles, etc for personal hygiene. We also
purchased the "little grandma" sewing kits to sew
patches on and repair uniforms. I can't remember whether
we paid for our first haircut or not, I can't imagine
that we did.

Well, the army PXs had all these items in them and it
was cheaper than back home because they did not charge
the taxes on them that civilian merchants were obliged
to.

There was enough left over for some beer and cigarettes.
So the guys wind up in the PX (that's Post Exchange to
civilians) and are drinking some beer which we could do
on post at 18 years of age. Some of them are getting
tanked up (the beer wasn't much, not like back home
anyway) and this one guy went to the music box and
played the same song 5 times in a row (5 plays for a
quarter, right?) and no one thought much about it but he
went up there and did the same thing a second time, the
guys start raising Hell with him. He ignored them and
did it again and when he did, some guy jumped up, ran to
the music box, drove his fist through the top of it,
reached in and took the record out and broke it on the
edge of the music box!

The guys were giving him a standing ovation when the MPs
got there and the crowd tried to get them to let him go,
but of course, they couldn't do it so the crowd insisted
they take the other guy, too! I can't remember how it
all came out and we left for Ft Knox in a couple of
days, anyway.

They had another kind of funny one about the same time.
We were in formation the next day and the sgt was
telling us how we would be transported to our various
assigned posts, etc. So he says something, can't
remember what it was even, but when he finished, he
said, "Any questions?" which is a natural thing to do
and some vacant-eyed turkey raises his hand and sgt
acknowledges him, and the guy asked him almost exactly
what the sgt had just said and sgt was speechless for a
second or two then yells out to the formation, "I'll be
a son-of-a-bitch, 20,000 unemployed comedians in this
country and you're trying to be one!!"

I know this and that and stuff but I thought he was at
least kind of right. Why should we all have to stand
there in the Arkansas July heat simply because somebody
wasn't paying attention? Maybe even talking to and
distracting somebody else! I can't remember what
happened to the guy .......

Then we had an incident that wasn't quite so good but
wound up OK due to good cadre. They had everybody in
formation, I think when we were leaving Camp Chaffee,
and I remember we had our handbags with us, etc and
there were 3-4 sergeants there and the Staff Sgt who
generally ran our affairs was in front of the formation
and gave command to "dress right" for some reason (maybe
the formation had too much disarray and he was losing
track of things, I don't know), and one guy had a
suitcase in addition to his other baggage.

Well, he was trying to manage his stuff but was having
trouble so anyway, this one corporal, who thought he was
pretty hot stuff kept harassing him to get "dressed
right" and noticing his suitcase sticking out a little,
hauled off and kicked it and it kind of spun sideways
(he was just 2-3 guys from me and I saw the whole thing)
and when it wound up located for the worse, he kicked it
again and hit it in the side and the thing, cheaply
made, just fell apart kind of.

Well, when it got to that point the fellow being
censored remonstrated. That just made the corporal more
angry and about that time, the staff sergeant intervened
and in just a very few minutes, the corporal was headed
to the PX to buy with his own money a new suitcase/bag
for the soldier.

All in all, a very good demonstration of leadership at
it's worst and it's best. I learned a lot in just those
few minutes.

Having spent the better part of a working week in this
activity there at Camp Chaffee then they put us on a bus
and sent us on to Ft Knox where we arrived about 9:00 PM
and they took us right off the bus into nearby messhall
and gave us a steak dinner. Wasn't too bad but then, I
never did get a good steak in the army (but their
"yankee pot roast" was generally good). From the
messhall we went to a "repple-depple" where we spent, I
think, one night.

We had no more than got into our bunks and we heard the
most awful broken-thunder-type noise, hard to describe.
It kept getting louder and louder and we went to window
to see what was going on and down the street lurches
this tank. It'd go a few feet, the engine was roaring
(sounded like no mufflers) and the thing started missing
and cutting out then starting up again and lurched a
little further down the street and the tank acted and
sounded like some wounded medieval beast, not altogether
a very favorable performance. I remember having then
some second thoughts about tanks.

The next day they were sending us to the individual
units we would be going to. Bob Hudson and Donald Crane
went to the 36th Armored Infantry Battalion. Then I was
told that I was selected for Ordnance, I wouldn't be
going with my buddies. Well, I insisted I had signed up
for tanks and that was where I wanted to go. If that
couldn't be done then I wanted to go with my buddies. I
wouldn't sign any documents, etc so the clerk got some
sergeant to talk to me. This guy was, of course, a
veteran and so forth so I was willing to listen to what
he had to say.

He told me that my testing revealed an aptitude for
things mechanical and all that and it would be to the
army's advantage and mine to have me placed in a job
beneficial to both. He said I would go to one of the
army's technical schools where I'd be trained as some
kind of mechanic and that the training would also be
beneficial in later civilian activity.

Well, It all sounded good and upon reflection I felt I
could do without the beast thing, but I was having
trouble with abandoning my buddies. He reminded me they
would be close enough for frequent visits and so forth.
He was persuasive, even sensible, so I finally agreed to
go to Ordnance and I'm glad I did, everything worked out
for me and I owe that sergeant a debt of gratitude.

The sergeant then assigned me to 122nd Armored Ordnance
Battalion and I reported there next day. Not sure
exactly how but I wound up in Company B and when I got
there, they explained that all basic training was being
given by each company to it's own people so I took my
basic training with Co B, 122nd A.O.B. The training was
to have been about 6 weeks, I guess, because we were a
support unit, not a combat unit. They were already into
the only training cycle when I got there and I wound up
getting only about 5 weeks of the training.

One of the first things they had us do was to notify our
families of our safe arrival in the units. As you can
see, they seemed to be pretty well organized in this
endeavor.

We got signed into
the company, through supply and orderly room, assigned
to a bunk, etc. and probably got my 3rd A.D. patches
with the rest of the stuff. I wound up in the 3rd
training platoon. After basic training, we were
re-assigned to sections pertaining to our duties and I
stayed in the same building, same 2nd floor. Later, all
I had to do was move my stuff across the center isle to
the Instrument Section of the Armaments Platoon.

I just joined the basic training crew, so to speak, and
started with them and from that point on got a little
make up instruction for the tardiness and that was it, I
was in the unit getting the training which
consisted of handling and firing weapons, grenades, etc,
marching of course, the "combat course" where you crawl
under the wire amid explosions while machine gun fires
over your head, map reading, first aid, communications,
K.P., ....... all the things a soldier will be doing, we
at least got to do it.

I especially remember the bayonet training and when me
and my opponent were doing our thing, I didn't think it
was too bad, but then the sarge said, "O.K., you've done
one on one now let's try one against two then we'll do
one against three and for the first time in my army
processing, I kind of chilled a little. I had enlisted
to do honorable battle against the other guy and had
never considered being in a situation where I'd be
hand-to-hand with two or even more opponents. It kind of
woke me up, so to speak.
I remember being on the rifle grenade range and getting
instructions on how to fire the thing. Boy, if that
wasn't something! We had the M1 Rifle, 30cal. which
fired a grenade using a fixture on the muzzle and a
blank 30cal. round. The grenade weighed probably 3-4
pounds. I got up to the firing line and the instructor
said fire from a kneeling position, hold the rifle butt
close to your shoulder and lean into it so I did. I was
a tall skinny kid with bones showing all over and when
"I leaned into it" and fired, the thing knocked me on my
rear-end and I thought it broke my collar bone but it
didn't. Even though ....... it stayed sore for
awhile.

I don't know what the deal was as all the other training
we had the grenade was fired with the rifle butt on the
ground. They even had a kind if mortar sight attachment
for the rifle where you set your elevation then leveled
the bubble on the sight to aim and fire it.

I fired the M1 rifle on KD range and I did better than
average, being from rural area and accustomed to hunting
but with small bore. The large bore weapons kind of
intimated me at first but my familiarity with guns got
me a head start with most of the other guys. I was
accustomed to recoil as I had hunted with shotguns back
home. My dad had a double-barreled 10Ga that'd put you
in the next county when you shot it. Sometimes both
barrels went off when you fired it.

And then there were the machine guns ........ Man, I
thought I'd heard noise before but those things were
definitely the nosiest things I was ever around. Wasn't
too bad when you were firing the thing but if you were
the loader you were positioned between the gunner and
the gun's muzzle, just a couple feet and got quite a bit
of the blast when the gun fired. Fortunately, being
headed for Ordnance school, we didn't get a whole lot of
the gunnery training. Later on, on the tank ranges, I'd
just cover my ears with my hands when I could or use ear
plugs when we had them.

We fired the 3.5 in. rocket launcher and saw the demo of
what it'd do to some one who got behind it when it
fired. Hell, it was more dangerous to the rear than it
was the other way. I don't see how anybody could hit
anything with it.

Kind of funny, I saw a firepower demonstration one time
and part of it was rocket fire at an old junk car. Heh,
the guy fired three rounds and no explosion and the
officers started talking to the guy over the speaker
system and finally got him to aim at the rear end of the
vehicle and he did and they finally got their explosion.

I could see what was happening as I had some binoculars
with me and we were setting on the side of this bluff
sort of and far enough away you could barely see the
rounds going to the car. But with the binoculars I could
tell he hit the car every time (he was pretty close to
it, I thought, but was far from us) and the rounds went
through the windows, in one side and out the other then
when he shot at the rear he almost knocked it off.

Speaking of shots, we got more of them. Someone said the
shot records had been lost or got the records mixed up
so just gave everybody a new set of shots - we never new
for sure what the problem was but we sure got the shots.

That's me above
in the "Saucer Hat" standing outside the Company's "Day
Room" and in fatigues to the right with the Co B Hdqrs
building in the background.

One time, right in our company area, we stacked rifles
and were doing P.T. just right by the company/battalion
street and this car with woman driver came through and
she apparently was watching all the healthy young men
and didn't watch the road and ran right into our rifles.
Luckily it was the rifles and even then she just bumped
a couple stacks and didn't run over or damage any of
them, just knocked'm over.

We qualified with the M1 rifles on the "K.D." range (known
distance range). Quite an experience and I think I may
have fired on it 3-4 times. We fired the M1 rifle, the
M1 carbine, the B.A.R. (Browning Automatic
Rifle) and I think I fired on a rifle team with the M1.

I can't remember for sure, but there
one time we were using spotting telescopes at 500 or
600 yards. Probably when I was firing for the rifle team. Anyway,
It was hot summer day with a fair wind coming in from
the right and we were firing at maximum
distance and one man
would fire and his teammate would "spot" for him, then
they'd switch roles and the other guy would fire and
you'd "spot" for him.

It was my turn to spot the shots on
the target with the 20X telescope and when my buddy
fired, I could see the path the bullet took through
the air! It was the darnedest thing! You couldn't
see the bullet, of course, but you could see it's passage through the air. It was
more the heat wave disturbance in the air than
anything.

When he'd fire,
the bullet would go up into
the air and off to the right a little then as it neared the target,
come back to the left and fall right into the target. The geometry of it was
astonishing as one didn't really consider
the actual path the thing would take. All
the shots were the same.

I kind of enjoyed the
rifle range ........ marking the targets
in the pit and seeing "Maggie'sDrawers"
and all of that. "ready on the right .....
ready on the left! Commence
firing, fire at will ....... poor
Will!

On the way back from the rifle range, on one of
those forays, where we had spent most of the day and
were marching back to our company and we took a break,
pretty hot actually. And there were a few trees at edge
of this field by the road so we moved over under the
trees where there was shade for most of the guys - some
were out in the sun but pretty soon one of the guys
says, "hey, look up there! There is a snake in the
tree!"

Well, I just happened to be right there and saw it and
I'll be damned, if there wasn't one in the tree and HE
WAS GREEN! Now, I'd never seen one like that. I didn't
figure there would be any of them kind north of
Louisiana, anyway. The guys started throwing sticks at
it and everybody is hollering for them to leave him
alone and let him stay up there as we then knew where he
was.

But they drove him out of the tree and when he hit the
ground everybody scattered and now we were out in the
sun again and to top it off the NCOs figured that if we
wanted to play we couldn't be that tired and ended the
break and marched us all the way back to the barracks
without any more breaks. Thanks a lot snake lovers
.......

There are many memories, of course, but I'd be pressed
to write of all of them. I had few pictures of the
activities at Knox but here are some of them. I got to
visit with Bob Hudson two or three times and there were
two other guys from our home town area at Ft Knox but
not in the 3rd A.D. We all got to see one another in the
year I was there.

Donald
Crane
Bob Hudson
At the end of basic training, we were in formation by
the Company Orderly Room when the 1st Sergeant announced
that the different company sections were set up at
tables inside the orderly room and that we would select
that same day the jobs or training that we would be
doing the remainder of our enlistments. He said that
when he gave the command "Fall Out!" it was first come,
first served-the first ones there got their pick of
jobs.

I was lucky as I was in direct line with the door and
was one of the first on the landing and in the door.
There were several tables set up around the room in a
crescent starting at the door. The first table had
Headquarters Section, supply, clerks and the like which
I flunked typing in high school so I figured I'd better
pass. Went to the next table and it was Service Section;
heaters, carburetor/ignition, machinist, etc. and I
almost took one of them. The "Technical Supply Section"
(all ordnance parts in our command) was in there
somewhere. Not sure but I think the next table was Wheel
& Track Maintenance and I did not want that as I had
seen some of it and remembering "the beast" shied away
from it.

I had gone through
all the tables there except the last one and I was
standing there thinking about trying to go back to the
Service Section- Carburetor/Ignition table when the guy
at the Wheel & Track table, Sgt. Truslow, said
"better make up your mind kid, you're running out of
tables. Just what kind of job do you want,
anyway?" Having come from a coal mining area where
even that was petering out, I blurted out "I don't know,
I'll work at about anything as long as it's clean and
not too heavy work!"

And to my
astonishment and later delight, the guy at the very
last table, Sgt. Mullett, said "Come on over here son,
I think I have just what you are looking for" and
signed me up for Fire Control Instrument Repair in his
Armaments Platoon.

I then went TDY to
school in Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland and was
given MOS 403.20 Fire Control Instrument Repairman and
worked on artillery, tank, etc. gun sights and other
optical equipment like binoculars and telescopes - I
really loved and appreciated the job.

I only relate this
story of the military training for some of the
old-timers that might see it and have interest and to
advise the youngsters to always speak up and at least
let the world know of your aspirations, your Sgt.
Mullett might be listening.

Anyway, they cut
orders on me and away I went TDY to Fire Control
Instruments School in Aberdeen Proving Grounds for about
three months. I arrived there last of September 1955 and
started schooling in first part of October.

While there, I ate my
first pizza in the town of Aberdeen, I saw the army's
280mm "atomic" cannon there, and got to listen to them
testing the new "gatling guns".

Also, I became friends with a detachment of Territory of
Hawaii soldiers going to school there and they had their
own distinct uniforms, blue, I think they were. They
were billeted in same barracks as I was but went to
different school than me.I partook of a Christmas package they received
while we were there and got to eat poi but passed on the
squid.

The weather there was
more mild than I was accustomed to for the time of the
year. We had to pull K.P., guard, fireman to stoke
stoves in boiler rooms, etc as a whole class. A complete
class would take a day or two off from the school and
then they selected who they wanted for all those duties.
Then back to school - that way no one was forced to miss
training.

One time when I was on K.P., someone started hollering
"Come quick and see this!"

So we all ran over to look out the window ....... And
there was this big garbage truck (painted all white and
we called them "white elephants") picking up garbage at
our messhall. These trucks were operated by army drivers
but the garbage loaders were Prisoners from the army
stockade and a guard armed with a pump shotgun rode in a
seat on right front fender facing the rear of the truck
guarding the prisoners.

Well, the guard had to go answer nature's call so just
leaned his shotgun against the truck and came in and
used the mess hall's facility. That's when our guy
started yelling. When we looked out,
there was this prisoner with the shotgun acting like he
was shooting the other prisoner and the other guy, of
course falling over dead. They were playing "cops and
robbers" with the loaded shotgun.

The mess sgt. took one look and called the M.P.s. By the
time they got there, the guard had returned to the truck
got his shotgun back and the truck was going on about
their rounds with the guard in his seat and the
prisoners on the back of the truck.

Never did find out exactly what happened to the guys
involved but I wouldn't want to be them.

That's me to
left and the school buildings are in the background. The
map shows the general area of the APG.
The training we were given included the electro-magnetic
spectrum, properties of light, how light works with
optics, etc. Pretty neat training, actually. Then, of
course, the way mechanical devices could utilize the
theoretical principals involved. The training I got in
this regard really helped me over the years. The way to
dis-assemble and re-assemble mechanical components and
clean the optics, etc. all in an organized way.

Heh, there was one thing about the training and the work
I did in the military - when working on the small
mechanisms you almost never used any degree of force!
Doing so almost every time would damage whatever it was
you were working on. We had only a small brass hammer
that only weighed 2-3 ounces and a small mallet made of
wrapped rawhide. You just never applied very much force.

Having done this type work for 7 years caused me some
problems later in civilian life. When we would be
working on something, not instrument, and it wasn't
going right, my buddy would immediately reach for his
hammer and just knock Hell out of it. I'd just cringe,
we NEVER used that amount of force! It was a little
while before I, too, started reaching for a BFH if you
guys know what I mean. That's BIG dirty-word HAMMER!

Well, they don't make them big ones for nothing I found
out and sometimes I looked for and was glad when I found
a big one.

Normally, watches
fell within our area of expertise but the military had
just adopted the cheap timepieces of the day - use'm
until they fail and throw'm away and issue a new one, no
repair involved so we didn't get to work on watches.

I remember standing guard there a couple of times,
always at night, and was kind of spooky. First, we were
issued M1 Carbines and given live Ammo to walk guard
with and were cautioned about the bad guys wanting to
penetrate the Aberdeen Proving Grounds. They took us out
to some buildings, out away from everything else. They
were steel buildings and where I was there was an
electric wire of some kind hanging down side of the
building and that damn thing would make some weird slap
sounds on the side of it. Like to drove me nuts.

Then, oh, a couple times a week, you'd hear a couple
rounds go off in that area. They had a lot of deer
moving around there at night and it was isolated and I
generally never saw anyone else around so you were by
yourself and it WAS kind of spooky. You give some green
kid live ammo and then scare him with the Russians and,
yeah, you'll get a round every now and then.

I made some friends there at the school and since we
would be there over the holidays, accepted invite to
visit their home in Jewett City, Connecticut. One of
them had a car and we drove there over the New Year
holiday. I saw New York City, lots of countryside and
got to visit a town just across the border in southern
Massachusetts, just so I could say I had been to the
state.

While I was at
Aberdeen, we went to neighboring town of Bel Aire where
we had heard there was a roller skating rink.There was
one there, a big one and fairly nice. We started going
over there when we could and I had a heck of a time
learning to skate. I bought a pair of skates and tried
to learn and was just getting to the point I was
spending more time in the rink on them than my butt and
ended the school and had to leave. Sold the skates
'cause figured they'd be no good where I was going.

About this time, winter, we had a parade for some
reason. They gave us weapons and I was given a M1
Carbine and we formed up on a cold, gray day in Class A
uniforms and overcoats, scarves and proceeded to the
parade ground and I remember we were on the parade field
at attention and at "sling arms" and the ceremonies were
going on and a guy in the front rank, just in front of
me, started wobbling from side to side and my buddy
whispered to me asking if I noticed him and I said yes,
"..... when he falls I'll catch him on my left between
me and you and you can help me get him out of here."

Not more than said and down the poor guy went and I
caught him and turned to left and buddy helped me get
good hold on him and we took him out of the formation to
the left and they closed ranks behind us and we then
fell in on the end of the formation. Problem was, when
he fell backwards and I caught him, the front sight of
the weapon hanging on his shoulder caught me right in
the mouth. Just a little blood, hardly any, but hurt
like hell in that dismal weather.

It was something we had to deal with in the military
........ tensing up when standing at attention. If you
weren't careful, you'd just "lock up" and feint. I don't
think I saw anyone in the army ridiculed for it. I had
fainted a time or two before I went into the army and
even some afterwards but for some reason, I never had a
problem while I was in there and for 6 years, too.

But it was pretty good duty there at A.P.G. as it is in
center of the cities of Washington DC in one direction
and Philadelphia going the other and Baltimore just a
few miles. A little farther NE of Philadelphia was New
York City and all were within the limits of a 3-day
pass. So, if you were so inclined, there were plenty of
sights there.

Overall though, I had
good experiences there at the Proving Grounds.

I graduated with the
rest of the class and started back to Ft Knox in early
Jan 1956.

When I got back to
Ft Knox the company had been re-organized from generic
platoons into the working sections so I moved back into
the Armaments Platoon, Instrument Section, Sgt Dancy as
leader. I got along with him very well for some reason,
serving under him for over 2 1/2 years and had no
problems there.
Now, our platoon, The Armaments Platoon, had three sections;
The Artillery Section, The Small Arms Section and my
Fire Control Instruments Section. They are fairly
self-explanatory as to what it was they did but in the
army, you don't "shoot a weapon, you "fire" it and
Fire Control implies the aiming of especially the big
guns. So we worked on the "sights" of the mortars,
anti-aircraft, tank and artillery guns. Sniper scopes,
too.

Above is a picture of
the chow-line outside our mess hall. Not much to look at
but not as bad as it looked. Yet today I can name almost
everybody in that chow-line.

We did some shop work
but not much. We were issued brand new rifles made by
International Harvester after basic and I kept same one
the rest of the time I was in the unit.

January kind of was a forgotten month for me, I can't
remember much of it. But I do remember the barracks
being cold, especially at night. We actually had ice
form in some of the "butt cans" hanging on the center
isle posts (Just a coffee can half filled with water and
nailed to the posts for cigarette butts). There were
some cracks you could see right through the walls which
were bare and had no insulation of any kind.

Actually the barracks Ordnance was assigned to were the
poorest on the post. The barracks Bob Hudson's 36th
Infantry was in were the old wooden barracks but had
been remodeled and were elegant compared to ours. The
Tankers had the new modern concrete buildings where a
whole battalion could be billeted. Very nice.

Then, in January
even, came Operation Hercules. I don't know why they
chose to have the maneuver in January unless they
thought it would be Representative of German weather but
it was really a mess. Cold, drizzling rain, snow, and
mud unbelievable. Just Kentucky fighting off an Iowa
winter. The ground would've been frozen in Iowa.

I remember a couple good ones about the thing.

We were taught to dig a "Division Trains" foxhole
(support element thinking, I reckon). This was a regular
foxhole with an elongated dugout adjunct to it that
served as a sleeping area and over which you set up your
pup tent. This area under the pup tent was dug down into
the ground about 1-2 feet the idea being that in the
dark nights a tank wouldn't run over you as they might
if you were on top of the ground.

Well, that's all well
and good but we had so much water that it ran into our
foxholes filling them and the water started up into the
dugout part and one night I was wakened by my feet kind
of "bouncing" and when I awoke enough to realize what
was happening, I realized that the dugout part was
filling with water and my air mattress was floating on
it and sure enough, the whole bottom end was wet. What a
miserable night that was. Cold, wet and the whole bit. I
accepted it by telling myself "You"re lucky, at least
you are not being shelled or shot at."

The other thing about this maneuver was that wheeled
vehicles had a hard time moving around in the mud and
communications were repeatedly cut and finally we ran
out of commo wire as all of ours was wrapped around the
truck axles! We wound up parking everything excepting
one 3/4 ton that had a wench on the front bumper. All
transport was to be done on just that vehicle. Then the
maneuver ended.

Man was we glad to get back to the barracks, cracked
board walls and all.That's
Mitchell on the left and me on the right below.

We survived the
maneuver and had another later on in the spring
during good weather. It was just a company exercise
but I learned about slit trenches, "engineering
tape", night fighting and all of that. Wasn't too
bad.

We got some infiltration training on that one, too.

As spring was
advancing, we started mothballing all of our old
equipment and we as Ordnance became involved. I remember
greasing, wrapping exposed steel, etc on some of the
older self-propelled 105mm howitzers. And on some of the
crew-served weapons and readying them for storage.

We would draw new stuff when we got over there.

Overall, our activities started winding down and leaves
were given to personnel in preparation for our May-June
departures for Germany.

I took one 15 day
leave during this period and visited my family at home.
We also went to Louisville, Kentucky 2-3 times along
about then and I also went on pass to Lebanon Kentucky
with a hometown high school classmate, Jerry Eddy, who
had an old Studebaker car.

During this time I got to visit with Bob Hudson, Clyde
Wood and some of the guys several times. I remember
there was a movie theater over by Bob that was showing
the movie "To Hell and Back" with Audie Murphy and we
went to see that. I don't know whether everyone realizes
it or not but that movie was first shown in select army
theaters before it was released to the public and ours
was one of those selected.
I pulled K.P. a few times and like everybody
else, didn't like it. Depending on the unit,
your workday generally starts at about 5 o'clock
in the morning and in some places was 3 o'clock
in the morning when they came got you in the
barracks. You'd take a white towel and loop it
around your bunk's frame by the aisle so the
runner could find you in the darkened room. The
day lasted to between 6 and 11 o'clock that
night.

They had modern appliances in the mess hall such
as potato peelers, huge mixers and whatnot. I
remember seeing the name FMC on the brass ID
tags on some of the stuff. It didn't mean much
to me then but years later, I actually wound up
working with the outfit!

It was a long day and there were times when I
came back to the barracks and would have that
grease film from the steaming sinks all over me.
And it was not easily got rid of. Anyway, it
wasn't a good job. And the cooks had to get
everything done with a less than enthusiastic
crew. Sooo .......

Our Mess Sgt Orr came up with a novel solution I
thought.

He'd bribe us ....... That's right, the first
time I ran across the guy was when I was on K.P.
he approached us about noon and said "If you
guys hurry and get this place cleaned up after
the noon meal, I'll fix you some Spanish Rice
and some Light Rolls! Well, I sure knew what
light rolls were but hadn't ate "Spanish rice"
before.

The guys quickly talked it over and were of
course, game. So they told him sure will and
then did it and he did what he said and by golly
it was pretty good and a break from the
un-spiced food we generally got. Another time he
made us some cinnamon rolls and boy they were
good too.

I never understood how a good cook like Sgt Orr
could put out the regular, old army chow they
did. Then when we got to Germany and got into
the C-Rations, Orr had a real challenge.

The division kept getting organized and they are
starting to mature by the time of our nearing departure
date.

I remember one instance about this time when our 1st Sgt
Harris took a short leave and for some reason battalion
sent their pet Master Sgt, a crude asshole named
Carpenter, a big fat guy who chewed tobacco and who was
apparently highly thought of by our Lt Colonel, down to
run our company while Harris was gone.

We never knew for sure what the deal was and we had a
raft of SFCs and another Master Sgt right in our company
who easily could have done the job. Why send Carpenter
in?

But that's what they did. And he apparently came in with
a mission. Right away he starts hassling us and is
"going to straighten us out" etc, etc. Now our guys were
an ornery bunch but not mean. They had spirit, so what?
I never understood battalion's objections to our unit
being the way we were, heck we were leaders in the
battalion every time!

So this went on for a few days, not many or we would
have put the skids to him ourselves. Then Harris got wind of
what was going on and decided to check it out. I imagine
some of the NCOs told him?
So one day Carpenter was on the platform by the orderly
room chewing us up one side and down the other and I was
at the end almost of the formation and the guy next to
me nudged my elbow and mumbled "look at the corner of
the building" and I did and there was the bill of a cap
showing and the toe of a boot!

We kept watching, Carpenter is still going at it and
Harris, having heard what he wanted to, eased around the
corner of the building and up behind Carpenter who was
in such a state of ecstasy and so involved in his
degradation of us that he didn't notice him. Some of the
guys couldn't contain themselves and snickered and
Carpenter knew something was up but not sure what, just
tried that much harder to demean us.

So Harris had to take his foot and scrape it in the
gravel to get Carpenter's attention and get him to turn
around. And when he did and saw Harris, he almost shit
his self (maybe even did). And then Harris unloaded on
the poor dumb asshole. And if anybody could do it,
Harris could. I can't remember what all he said but it
included the Lt. Colonel.

And Harris just flat-assed ran him out of the company
and told him to get his ..... back up to battalion, etc
etc. I honestly believe that had he not gone Harris
would've started swinging.

As far as I know all the other NCOs got along fine with
Harris - I never heard anybody gripe about him. So there
had to be something there that we just didn't know
about. He probably got the better of the Battalion
Commander at one time or another and it just escalated
from there.

Maybe he was just too much of a "B Co." man ...... who
knows?

Then we had a Division parade on Armed Forces Day of
only personnel - no vehicles, excepting air.

Boy was that something ....... We had a practice parade
a day or two prior to the real thing. During this
parade, they tried to have the soldiers sing "My Old
Kentucky Home" but had to give up on it. I think because
of the speed of sound! Our division was kept at certain
percent over-strength and was really big, at one time we
had nearly 18,000 men in it. The normal complement was
about 15,000. When they got every one on the field, it
was so long from one end to the other that everyone had
trouble staying in time and even with same words. It
didn't sound very good at all.
Well, they dropped the song and we went ahead with the
real thing on a beautiful warm day. We formed up at
company at regular work call about 7:30AM, marched to
battalion and formed up there and about 8:00AM headed
for the parade field. We swung into line there and I
think was one of the first units to arrive and they kept
coming until field filled completely. We probably had
close to the 15,000 man complement on the field.

Medics and ambulances were posted along the back of the
formation and every now and then, not many but a few,
passed out and you could hear the rattle of their
equipment as they went down. The G.I. helmet especially
makes a distinct sound when it hits the ground (one of
the saddest I've ever heard). The medics would retrieve
the guy, maybe put him in an ambulance and you could
hear the ambulance drive off. Couldn't see anything
because we couldn't turn around.

The ceremonies on the reviewing stand and the grounds
then started.

I remember command being given to "Present The Colors"
and all the color guards of the division, all shined up, came to the front of
the reviewing stand and dipped all Command Flags, not
the national flags, just the command banners. Boy, what
a gorgeous sight in that beautiful sunlight. One of the
grandest things I've ever seen.

Soon after this
came one of the darnedest things I've ever seen. There
were 4 of those little Bell Helicopters with the glass
bubble domes came around and they were made up like
people, 2 men and 2 women and they did a square dance!
Someone on the reviewing stand did the calling on the speaker system and the
helicopters docey-doed and the whole bit. They were on
our end of the field and we got a really good look at
them and they were just great.

I was scared to death they might bump one another and
we'd have a mess on our hands but they performed
flawlessly. Just did a great job ..........

All in all, a very
impressive show, I thought, and I was proud to be part
of it (regardless of our failure to sing "My Old
Kentucky Home").

We marched back to our company area, and having been on
our feet for about 5-6 hours, put away our weapons and
sometime after 1:00PM went to mess hall for our steak
dinner. And as usual, it was tougher'n .....!

Just to the left is a pretty sharp kid who was the
company commander's driver. As far as I know everyone
liked him. His name was Watson and he was from Texas.

Along about this time
I acquired a 3rd Armored Division yearbook that had the
picture of everyone in the division in it. There were
probably a few guys who didn't get their picture in it
for one reason or another but couldn't have been very
many.I've included our
company B here.

We were winding down
there in FT Knox and were about ready for the move
to Germany and we had one of our regular Saturday
Inspections coming up and some of the guys asked if
the company cared if they painted the latrine Friday
night just before the inspection and they were told
to go ahead "if they had the paint" so they did.

They started on it and some one came upstairs and
said come look at what they are doing so we went
down to the latrine and those guys were painting it
Pastel Pink and Blue! Made you horny just to look at
it! So, we all figured it was a superb joke and
pitched in and made sure they had it done by the NCO
check about 9:30 - 10:00 pm that night.

The junior NCOs came in and saw it and I swear,
there were looks of admiration on their faces! Then
they sent someone to get Sgt King and when he saw
it, he was practically speechless but when he
finally captured his voice no one had trouble
hearing him! We were told to re-paint that sucker
right away, that he didn't care where or what about
the paint but we better find some somewhere and by
work call Saturday morning that latrine better be
Green and White "like it otter be, he didn't care if
it took all night!"

The guys just laughed, they got a big kick out of
it, then they broke out the Green/White paint they
already had and we finished it up by maybe 1:00 am.

Saturday, the officers checked and no problems at
all, heck they were proud of us.

I suppose stuff like that was what pissed the Lt.
Colonel off ......

Along in here
somewhere the boys decided they had to have a beer
party before they shipped to Germany. They all
talked it over and Lt Avey helped organize it and
1st Sgt Harris OK'd it and they proceeded with the
party. It was nice warm weather so they decided to
have it in our parking lot which was a good deal,
being close to the barracks.

For some reason, I did not partake of the
festivities. I went there, had a beer and went back
to the barracks, I believe. Anyway, some of the guys
got pretty well loaded up, among them was 1st Sgt
Harris.

Well, the next morning after "work call" we went to
the shop and the 1st Sgt went over to the barracks
and lay down on a bunk to heal a little.

And here comes the Battalion Commander, who
apparently hated 1st Sgt. Harris, on a "surprise"
inspection of his problem B Co after their "beer
party" of the night before. Lt. Avey was our Platoon
Leader and was well liked by everybody and when the
colonel went to the barracks Lt. Avey went along.

Now when inspections start, it's generally with No 1
and then on down the line. So the colonel goes to
the first barrack, walks in and there on the first
floor, in the first bunk on the right, lays someone
with the dust-cover blanket drawn over his head and
he asks who is this at this time of day? And 1st Lt
Avey says "it's one of the guards who was on the 3rd
relief and we give them the morning off next day to
recuperate before they go to work" (which is
customary in army).

And 1st Sgt Harris, not fully asleep, throws the
blanket off, ready for battle and loudly says "Guard
Hell, I'm the 1st Sgt." in effect letting the Lt.
Colonel know what he thought of his "surprise"
inspection. He was leaving the company anyway so
don't really know what happened over the deal.

All I know is that the men in the company liked the
Company Commander, Capt Miller and they liked 1 Sgt
Harris, too. Personally, I thought he was a Hell of
a NCO, one of the best I saw in 6 years service.

I'm not sure what happened after that deal. I am
pretty sure Harris was not scheduled to go to
Germany with us and that 1st Sgt King was to take us
to Germany. He wasn't as good as Harris but he was a
good man, fair, and competent, and we liked him. And
I never saw Harris after we shipped out (until
Alaska on my second enlistment).
Like I said, I don't know why, but I thought we had
good NCOs and Officers. Well ...... there was one
NCO I didn't care much for but I'd try to get along
with him.

It may do to relate a particular little story here
about the men of "B" co. getting perhaps a little
too cocky and proud of themselves, so to speak. The
company was leaning on the men because they felt
they were not recruits anymore and they could have
long hair if they wanted it. The company posted on
the bulletin board what they thought was a good
description of a haircut, etc.

Well, things just kept rolling on until there was a
clash between some of the men and the cadre. If I
remember right Sgt King had taken over the company
and he finally addressed the problem at one of the
day's formations by describing the haircut desired
and even took his hat off and pointed his head to
the formation and said, "before the day is over, I
want you people to all have a haircut just like
mine!"

Well, the poor guy forgot about the wound he had in
his head where a steel plate was inserted in his
skull and no hair grew there. When retreat came and
he had the men there in formation, he gave the
command "open ranks, march" then when everybody was
positioned for inspection, he gave command "uncover"
and all the men removed their hats and all Hell
broke loose! The men, almost to a man, had all gone
to the barbershop, yes, but all had a bare spot cut
into the sides of their hair just like King's.

When Sgt King saw it, he threw his clipboard into
the air and took off for the orderly room (one of
the clerks later said he seemed to be crying when he
came in) and went into C.O.'s office, Capt. Miller
and told him what had happened and the men had
ridiculed his Korean Wound and the Captain merely
said, "Well, you know what to do then?" and Sgt King
said, "Yes,sir" went back out to the formation and
marched them all to the barbershop and cut all of
their hair off.

So the B Co. men didn't always get their way. But
they all went and got it re-done, perhaps realizing
they had gone "a haircut too far?"

Maybe if you have a particularly gifted officer
running it he somehow is able to percolate his
attributes down through the ranks. That's what real
leadership is all about anyway.

Then
.......
QUARANTINE!

We were quarantined to the
post for 1-2 weeks, can't remember how long, just before
we went overseas. Sgt Dancy who was fairly conversant in
German language went over on the advanced party. They
were to ensure billeting and so forth for us when we got
there. I don't know whether anyone realizes it or not
but we actually had diagrams of post, etc before we even
went over there. I knew pretty much where my bunk was
BEFORE I got on the boat!

And this last one,
taken the day we departed for New York via troop train.
The gear Joe Miller, Dean Mitchell and Jim Dowell are
wearing is what we made the move in.I took the picture.

So we were put on a troop train
and taken to New York City harbor and loaded onto a
troopship, The USS Rose. The ship was named for Gen
Rose who was Commanding General of the 3rd Armored
Division from St Lo to Paderborn and was KIA there
during the drive to close the Ruhr Pocket in the
closing days of WWII. The drive was one day and the
division covered 101 miles in that day, the longest
military land advance ever made until that time.

It was a nice ship as far as that kind of ship went.
It was carrying the 3rd AD back to Europe in
Operation Gyroscope.

We had no more than boarded the ship and were
getting settled and one guy got seasick, believe it
or not. If you paid close attention, you might be
able to feel some movement in the ship, kind of up
and down but was nothing really. But the guy sure
claimed sea sickness and was spitting up.

We sat there overnight at the dock and departed the
next morning. Nice weather and we got good look at
the Statue of Liberty on the way out of the harbor.
As a matter of fact, we had great weather all the
way to Bremerhaven, our destination.

The chow was passable, I reckon and sure nothing to
brag about. We ate in shifts in a kind of small mess
hall the Navy called a "Galley" and sat at tables
which had rails that you could lift up in rough
weather.

The ship was pretty clean and was well painted,
looked good and the Navy seemed to take good care of
it. We got along fine with the crew who
was generally helpful.
Eating the bean soup was kind of fun as it was
moving in your bowl all the time. We had no trouble
going over but we sure did coming back and had to
use the rails on the mess tables to keep the dishes
on it. It was a little on the rough side coming out
of Bremerhaven and in the channel but got better
when we got to the open sea.

Going over, there were a couple situations caused us
some heartburn. One was kind of humorous in that we
were all landlubbers, of course, and knew nothing of
working with the sea. The very first day I was put
on a detail to clean up our "bay" area which we did
that morning and we had all the trash and stuff
collected in 3-4 garbage cans (mostly paper) and
were told to take the cans to the fantail and dump
the contents into the ocean.

Well, we did. Of course when we got to the fantail
the wind was in the wrong direction and blowing like
it does where there are no hills to slow it down and
when we dumped the stuff, the wind blew it right
back into our compartment which was located below
deck and right under the fantail. Since it was
really nice weather we had the windows open under
the fantail and half the stuff wound up right back
in our area.

We cleaned it up again and closed the windows and
re-dumped the stuff and got rid of it that time then
opened the windows back up. It seems to me like the
sides of the ship had portholes but there were
windows just under the fantail.

One thing I didn't care for was the latrine. The one
we used was in the rear of the ship, too. It spanned
the width there inside the rear part of the ship.
There was a metal trough cross ways of the ship and
had the center somewhat lower that the ends
connected to the sides of the ship. There were seats
setting on a top to the "trough" and was where you
sat to do your business.

There was a pretty good stream of running water fed
into the ends of the "trough" and it drained towards
the center and carried all the waste out of the
ship. The problem was that when the ship got into
some waves it started rolling from side to side and
the water would take off down the trough and when it
hit the ends it would splash up sometimes higher
than the seats.

You really had to pay attention or you might wind up
with some of the stuff splashed on you. I didn't
have too much trouble (didn't go unless absolutely
had to) but some of the guys were just terrified of
the thing.

We saw flying fishes and some porpoises that caused
an argument as to whether they were whales or not
and the Navy had to be called over to settle the
argument. It was just great weather.

I believe we had a shower or two but there was only
salt water for bathing, etc. for the troops. I think
the navy had fresh water.

So, we got to see the chalk cliffs there in the
channel on the French side. I knew England had them
but looked to me like the French had their fair
share, too!

The Navy did OK, they got us to Bremerhaven
all together and in one piece which is all that
really matters, anyway.